Good News Tuesday: 8 yr old fights human trafficking with lemonade stand

There’s so much negative news in the world, some of us have chosen to stop reading and/or watching entirely.

I’d like to help change that.

Every Tuesday, I’ll highlight an article I find that focuses on GOOD NEWS. This column is called Good News Tuesday.

Spread the word.

This week’s entry comes to us from Erin Sherbert courtesy of SF Weekly.

Vivienne Harr, 8-Year-Old Girl, Raises $30K From Lemonade Stand To Fight Human Trafficking

While you all have been lazily basking in the sun this summer, this 8-year-old girl has been working her tail off to change the world, one lemon at a time.

In the northern city of Fairfax, Vivienne Harr has spent the last 57 days of her summer vacation turning lemons into lemonade — literally. She’s been selling the sweet refreshing beverage with plans to use all her proceeds to fight human trafficking across the world.

As of Saturday afternoon, the young entrepreneur had already earned more than $30k at her makeshift business, which she appropriately dubbed Make-A-Stand! Lemonade: The Sweet Taste of Freedom.

She plans to keep selling lemonade until she raises $150,000, using only fair trade lemons, of course. ‘

“And it’s really hard to find fair-trade things. I mean, we’re buying fair trade things because, I mean, you can’t be freeing slaves and having them to work harder for the cause that you’re trying to do to help them be free,” Harr told reporters.

Initially, she was charging $2 per cup of lemonade (raspberries optional) but as business boomed, she decided to leave it up to her customers to pay whatever they wanted to in exchange for a delightful glass of lemonade.

“We’re betting on the goodness of people, and we found that the average price went up $18 when we made it free,” her dad said. “We said, ‘Pay what’s in your heart.'”

Every dime is going to the Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit called Not For Sale, whose mission is to fight human trafficking and modern-day slavery around the world.

“One of Vivienne’s favorite sayings is, ‘Big things have small beginnings,'” Eric said. “I think that’s the big take-away for us.” 

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When I was her age, I raised money for volleyball equipment for our school. THIS is simply amazing.

Here’s the part where you tell me: Have you heard of this little girl? What do you think about her campaign?